All injured Iraq troops are put in isolation when they first arrive at stateside military hospitals, until they are shown to be infection-free.

FORBES: War Wounds

Once the miner's symptoms were noted, local carers put him in a makeshift isolation ward and the Ugandan ministry of health sent in its rapid-response team.

ECONOMIST: There are few worse viruses than Marburg

Within hours he was diagnosed with Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever, a virus nasty enough for him to be put onto a military transport aircraft for transfer to an isolation hospital in London.

ECONOMIST: Where and when will the next pandemic emerge?

In isolation, this week's stories are all pretty notable, but if you put them together, it begins to sound a lot like the plot of a movie.

ENGADGET: Alt-week 1.26.13: quadruple DNA helixes, Byzantine mutants and battling hospital bugs